Week 2, In the Kitchen
Being a food activist needs to be relevant and actionable, and therefore understanding what we can do in our kitchens will empower us to feel confident, and enable us to share skills with others so they can contribute to the food revolution in a way that is big or small.
Speakers: Kathy, Naturebites UK and Annie Levy, Kitchen Counter Culture
Discussion/Breakout groups discussed different aspects of food in the kitchen, and came up with actions we can take as; individuals, community food activists, business’ and governments.
Actions we can take as individuals
Get cooking and start with the meals you love. Talk to your family and friends about your favourite foods for recipe ideas. You could talk to parents or grandparents to explore family recipes or foods you ate as a child. Look at the ready-made meals or takeaway/deliveries you purchase and enjoy the most; see if you can make this dish yourself at home from scratch.
As you get better at cooking you can get in the habit of planning meals, this could be written, or simple online planning tool reminding us of recipes and ingredients lists to help write shopping lists. If you don’t plan, buy seasonal produce and then make a meal from these ingredients.
Develop your store cupboard over time. Getting enough ‘store cupboard’ ingredients can take time, this is things like vinegars, spices or sauces used for cooking. Finding sustainable sourced products can take time too. It can be a process growing a store cupboard and finding the right food for you, but don’t get overwhelmed.
Use your fridge and freezer well:
Be prepared with reusable storage for leftovers and pack lunches to keep in the fridge. Store meat and vegetables cleanly and correctly to help them last long safely.
Use your freezer for saving unused food before it is wasted.
Try bulk cooking and utilizing your freezer, use a sharpie pen to write what you are storing on the containers.
Work out what foods you are wasting and start a compost bin or wormery to re-use your food waste as compost.
When getting food deliveries or take-aways try to get them from companies/businesses that act in a more environmental & socially responsible way, perhaps find local branches that you can talk with and trust.
Attend a community cooking class and learn a new recipe or kitchen skill like bread making or fermenting to connect with your food.
New recipes taught by experts can give us new ideas to be creative in the kitchen.
Fermenting can be a useful skill for reducing our environmental impact in the kitchen, it is also good for our health and virtually free.
Foraging, eat the weeds – weeds are abundant and a free source of food that can be made tasty
Actions we can take as food activists in the community
Make and share simple recipes with the community - made with locally available foods with notes on the meals dietary and nutritional benefits.
If you know a recipe well that you would like to share with a community group or youth club get in touch with them and see if they would be interested in having you do a cookery workshop with their club.
Join a food redistribution group and support them in preserving, redistributing and utilizing local food waste.
Support a community or food group to provide healthy and sustainably sourced takeaways for the community as a healthy alternative to ready meals or food deliveries.
Linking people with different skills set, for example opening up conversations between people who have fermenting knowledge and skills with people who run community cooking and food events.
Utilise fermenting food as an opportunity to talk about gut health - outlining the benefits: financial, reducing waste and good for your health.
Support local governments and business in promoting healthy and sustainable food – highlight what they can do better, and how the community are affected, and help provide a better solution or idea. Perhaps you can do this with the support of a local town, community, or food council or group.
Actions we can take as business or government
Address food poverty to support everyone in having access to affordable healthy and sustainably sourced food and in being able to use it
Support schools, business’, local authorities, and community groups to access and provide cookery groups and classes as a way of supporting individuals in improving health, wellbeing and sustainable food systems
Introduce fermenting and pickling skills into basic cookery classes - outlining the benefits: financial, reducing waste and good for your health.
Government, businesses and the community could work together to promote and enable healthy eating (reduce obesogenic environments) and access to sustainably produced food.
Encourage and enable employees to access cookery classes
Support yourself and colleagues/employees in accessing healthy and sustainably sourced food at work
Ensure food we sell as business’ is healthy, good quality and sustainably sourced